National Healthcare Decisions Day Marked

Pallium India-USA plans to join thousands of Americans across the country for National Healthcare Decisions Day onApril 16 2012, which brings to the forefront the need to make one’s future healthcare decisions known to family, friends and healthcare providers.

Advance Healthcare Directives are instructions for your medical decisions if you are not able to speak for yourself. The program is meant to inspire, educate, and empower the community to take charge of its medical care at a crucial time in one’s life.

The San Jose Mercury News coverage of the issue is well worth a read, part of a larger series on the “Cost of Dying,” from reporter Lisa M. Krieger. This piece gets to the heart of why an Advance Healthcare Directive is such an important document:

Bill Newman has seen his share of hospitals. That’s why he plans to never go back.‘If I fall over, just let me go. No 911 guys with paddles. No bells and whistles,’ said the 87-year-old retired high school teacher and double bypass survivor.

[…] Modern medicine prolongs our lives in ways once thought unimaginable. But increasingly, we dwindle into frailty, disease and dementia, ill-prepared for the day when treatment fails us. We can do better, if we make a conscious choice.”

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